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Natural history and biology in the nineteenth century

Gordon McOuat and John van Wyhe

Numbers in square brackets refer to the University Library; those in BOLD refer to the Whipple collection.

• Chaudhuri, Brahma. 1988-1993. Cumulative Bibliography of Victorian Studies, 1970-1990. Edmonton: Litir Database. (3 vols.+. A computer-generated guide to the secondary sources.) [R542.62]
• Madden, Lionel and Richard Story 1977. Primary Sources for Victorian Studies: A Guide to the Location and Use of Unpublished Materials. London: Phillimore. [A690.29]
• Madden, Lionel 1970. How to Find Out About the Victorian Period: A Guide to Sources and Information. Oxford. (Very dated, but of some use.) [R542.63]
• Mitchell, Sally, ed. 1988. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. (Short articles and biblios. on all sorts of Victorian subjects.) [R542.68]

Also, make sure and consult the very important Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition.

Bibliographies

• Bibliography of the History of Medicine. (The Isis of hist. o' med.) [MED.2-12]
• Bridson, Gavin D. The History of Natural History: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1994. (A comprehensive and up-to-date list of works in the field). [REF. LIS 20]
• Challinor, John 1971. The History of British Geology. A Bibliographical Study. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. [R365.5]
• Corsi, Pietro and Paul Weindling, eds. 1983. Information Sources in the History of Science and Medicine. New York: Garland. (Excellent collection of short essays and bibliographies. See especially David E. Allen, 'Life Sciences: Natural History' pp. 349-360, and Margaret Pelling, 'Experimentalism and the Life Sciences' pp. 361-378.) [R340:5.17; PER.10]
• Egerton, F.N. 1977. 'A Bibliographic Guide to the History of General Ecology and Population Ecology'. History of Science 15:189-215.
• Freeman Bibliographical Database [http://darwin-online.org.uk/Freeman_intro.html] (based on Freeman, R.B. 1977. The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist, second edition. Folkestone: Dawson.)
• Nelson, E. C. 1993. 'Searching the archives for botanists', Huntia 9: 5-19.
• Olby, Robert C., G.N. Cantor, J.R.R. Christie and M.S.J. Hodge, eds. 1990. Companion to the History of Modern Science. Routledge. (Several articles on biology, physiology, cell theory, species and geology – all with useful bibliographies. Not much on natural history in particular.) [340:5.c.95.517; SCI.31]
• Overmier, Judith A. 1989. The History of Biology: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland. (Usefully divided by subject.) [R379.140; LIS.10]
• Porter, Roy 1983. The Earth Sciences: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland. [R364.5.4; EAS.7]
• Smit, P. 1974. History of the Life Sciences: An Annotated Bibliography. Amsterdam: Asher. (Only somewhat helpful.) [LIS.11]
• Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine 1980. Subject Catalogue of the History of Medicine and Related Sciences. München: Kraus. (18 Volumes.) [MED.69-86]
• Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI) Abstracts has a useful section listing and summarising works on the history of botany.

See also the bibliographies in the history section below.

Journals

Most history of science journals include works on the history of biology and natural history (except, obviously, specialist journals, e.g., Archives of the History of Exact Sciences). Also, check out some of the philosophy journals, especially Philosophy of Science [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/PHILSCI/].

• Archives of Natural History (formerly Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History).
• Biology & Philosophy [http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1572-8404/]. (Mainly a philosophy journal, but historically minded at times. See works by Robert O'Hara on representations of natural systems and also works on the sociology of science.)
• History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.
• Journal of the History of Biology [http://www.springerlink.com/content/102950/]. (Torn between the poles of Darwin and modern physiology.)
• Philosophers' Index. (An annual index to philosophical works. Many entries on biological and natural historical issues.)
• Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698486].
• Victorian Studies [http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/showPage.do?DurUrl=Yes&TEMPLATE=/contents/abl_toc/VictorianStudiesaninterdiscipli/issues.jsp].

Also, see the numerous history of medicine journals.

Library catalogues

• Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum (Natural History). [R382.5]
• Catalogue of the Hunterian Museum.
• Linnean Society of London 1925. Catalogue of the Printed Books and Pamphlets. [R370.17]
• Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard.
• Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1899.
• Catalogue of the Library of the Zoological Society of London, 1902.

Prosopography – general

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography. (Start here.) [REF]
• Dictionary of National Biography. [REF]
• Boase, Frederic 1892-1921. Modern English Biography. Truro: Netherton and Worth. (Contains many nineteenth-century entries not included in DNB.) [R454.6]
• British Biographical Index. (A very useful microfiche, located just inside the door of the Reading Room, CUL.)
• Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 1817-1912.
• Dictionnaire de biographie Française.
• Deutcher Biographischer Index. (Microfische in Reading Room.)
• Poggendorff, J. C. Biographische-literarisches Handwörterbuch der exacten Wissenschaften. Leipzig: Verlag von Amborius Barth. (Excludes the life sciences, but includes mineralogy and geology.) [SCI.2]
• Barr, E. Scott 1973. An Index to the Biographical Fragments in Unspecialized Scientific Journals. (Indexes the biographical fragments of 7,700 scientists in the following journals: American Journal of Science, 1818-1920; Proceedings of Edinburgh Royal Society 1832-1920; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 1800-1933; Nature 1869-1918; Popular Science Monthly, 1872-1915; Philosophical Magazine, 1789-1902; and Science1883-1919.)
• Halkett, Samuel and John Laing, et al, ed. 1926-1962. Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature. (9 vols.) Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. (Useful for exposing those annoying anonymous authors. Not too much natural science, though.)

Also check the 'Biographical Register' and accompanying bibliographies in Frederick Burkhardt, et al, eds. 1985++. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. (volumes 1-11) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Prosopography – particular

• Boivin, B. 1977. A Basic Bibliography of Botanical Biography and a Proposal for a More Elaborate Bibliography. Taxon 26:75-105. (It's a start.)
• Bridson, G.D.R.; V.C. Phillips and A.P. Harvey 1980. Natural History Manuscript Sources in the British Isles. London: Monsell. (The definitive work on locations of natural history archives in Britain and Ireland. Also contains a useful introductory bibliography of archival sources.) [A120.31; LIS.2]
• Britten, J. and G.S. Boulger 1893-1908. A Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists. London: Taylor and Francis. [Plant Sci. AD48a]
• Carpenter, M. 1945, 1953. 'Bibliography of Biographies of Entomologists'. American Midland Naturalist 33:1-116; 50:257-348. (Mainly American.)
• Cooter, Roger 1989. Phrenology in the British Isles: An Annotated, Historical Biobibliography and Index. London: Scarecrow Press. (Many naturalists, especially reformists, in the early nineteenth century were also phrenologists.) [198.c.98.151; LIS.3]
• Desmond, R. 1977. Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists. London: Taylor and Francis. [SCI.13]
• Fruton, Joseph 1982. A Bio-bibliography for the History of the Biochemical Sciences Since 1800. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. [R340.41; LIS.5]
• Gilbert, P. 1977. A Compendium of the Biographical Literature on Deceased Entomologists. London: British Museum (Natural History). [R382.75]
• Hunt Botanical Library 1972. Biographical Dictionary of Botanists Represented in the Hunt Institute Portrait Collection. Boston: Hall. (For spiffy pictures and biogs.)
• Mearns, Barbara and Richard Mearns 1988. Biographies for Bird Watchers. London: Academic Press. [395:1.b.95.25]
• Mullens, William Herbert and Harry K. Swann 1917. A Bibliography of British Ornithology from Earliest Times to 1912. London: Macmillan. (A very good source for biographies and biographical references.) [R382.47]
• O'Connor, W.J. 1988. Founders of British Physiology: A Biographical Dictionary 1820-1885. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. (Not just a biographical dictionary, but a useful history as well.) [R301.12; PER.38]
• Palmer, Theodore Sherman 1868. Biographies of Members of the American Ornithologists Union. Washington: AOU. (The AOU was the first society of naturalists who thought of themselves as 'professionals'.)
• Sarjeant, William and William A. Swithin 1979-84. Geologists and the History of Geology: An International Bibliography. Malabar, Florida: Krieger. (5 vols. A very useful, multivolume work.) [R365:5.7; EAS.8-12]
• Swainson, William 1840. Taxidermy, and with the Biography of Zoologists, and Notices of Their Works. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. (An odd place for biography, but Swainson includes a quick guide to many early nineteenth-century natural historians. Very, very idiosyncratic.) [Sci. Per. Lib. Old AA140]
• Wade, J.S. 1928. 'A Bibliography of Biographies of Entomologists with Special Reference to North American Workers', Annals of the Entomological Society of America 21: 489-520.
• Wynne, Owen 1969. Biographical Key – names of birds of the world – to authors and those commemorated. Fordingbridge, Hants. [Scott Polar Res. Inst. Shelf 598.2]

Natural history books and papers

• Agassiz, Louis 1848-1854. Bibliographia zoologiae et geologiae. A general catalogue of all books, tracts and memoirs on zoology and geography. London: Ray Society. (Agassiz's bibliography of natural history writings in European languages – excluding botany. Edited by H.E. Strickland and continued as the Zoological Record.) [R382.100: 4 vols. LIS.1: an incomplete set.]
• Curle, Richard 1954. The Ray Society: A Bibliographical History. London: Ray Society. (The Ray Society was a major publisher of nineteenth century Natural History works and bibliographies.) [St. Cath. College 500.9.RS138]
• Davis, P. and C. Brewer 1986. A Catalogue of Natural Science Collections in North-East England with Biographical Notes on the Collectors. Newcastle upon Tyne: North of England Museum Service. (Take a look at this and Hancock & Pettel 1981 for information about provincial collections and collectors.) [R382.165]
• Douglas, G. L. 1988. 'History of Science and Technology Resources at the Linnean Society of London', British Journal for the History of Science 21: 489-93.
• Freeman, R.B. 1980. British Natural History Books 1495-1900. London: Dawson. (A comprehensive list of published books.) [B150.382.2; LIS.4]
• Freeman, R.B. 1984. Natural History Books to 1900 in Foreign Printings. London: The Author. [Uc.5.2500]
• Hancock, E.G. and C.W. Pettel 1981. Register of Natural Science Collections in North West England. Manchester: Manchester Museum. [Ub.9.2067]
• Jackson, Benjamine D. 1881. Guide to the Literature of Botany. London: Linnean Society. (Very useful for nineteenth-century subjects: divided into subjects, e.g. 'Systems', 'Nomenclature', etc.) [Botany Library AC43]
• Knight, David 1972. Natural Science Books in English. 1600-1900. New York: Praeger. [340:5.b.95.22; SCI.21]
• Royal Society of London 1867-1925. Catalogue of Scientific Papers 1800-1900. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. (19 vols.) [Whipple Ref. has vols. 1-8; SPL Ref 013]
• Ray Society 1841, 1842, etc. Reports on the Progress of Zoology and Botany. Edinburgh: Ray Society.
• Stafleu, F.A. 1976-1988. Taxonomic Literature. Utrecht: International Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature. (A gigantic guide to all the botanical literature published by each author with references for biographies.) [R270.5.20]
• Thackray, John 1998. A Guide to the Official Archives of the Natural History Museum, London. London: Society for the History of Natural History. (Indispensable handlist of the holdings at the Natural History Museum) [Ref (LIS 27)]
• Zoological Record. 1864→. (An annual bibliography of zoological articles and books, classified by subject.)

Guides to the periodical press

• Madden, Lionel 1975. The Nineteenth Century Periodical Press in Britain: a Bibliography of Modern Studies. 1901-1971. Toronto: Victorian Periodicals Newsletters. [HIS.56]
• North, J.S., Michael Wolff, Dorthy Deering, et al, eds. 197-. The Waterloo Directory of Victorian Periodicals. 1824-1900. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press. (A comprehensive list of almost all Victorian journals on any subject – containing publishing and editorial information and locations.) [PRL.10.20]
• Poole, William Frederick. Guide to Periodical Literature. (Indexes 479 British and American Periodical literature published between 1802 and 1906. Subject index only – no author index. Author index published later by C. Edward Wall 1971. Cumulative Author Index for Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.) [R907.16]
• Van Arsdel, Rosemary 1978. Victorian Periodicals: a Guide to Research. New York: Modern Language Association of America. (see Madden 1975.)
• Vann, J. Don and Rosemary J. Van Arsdel, eds. 1978. Victorian Periodicals: A Guide to Research. New York: Modern Languages Association. (Dated, but with very, very useful tips.) [PRL.10.24]
• Victorian Periodicals Newsletter. [PRL.10.18]
• Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals. (The main index of Victorian publications. Regrettably, ignores the scientific press.) [HIS.36]

Histories – general

• Allen, David E. 1976. The Naturalist in Britain. A Social History. London: Allen Lane. (Turn here for comprehensive study of the social basis of natural historians. Not much history of ideas, though.) [Uc.5.1750]
• Allen, Garland 1975. Life Sciences in the Twentieth Century. New York: Wiley. (A basic student's history of biology. Don't be fooled by the title. It covers much nineteenth century topics. Introduces the highly controversial notion of the 'revolt against morphology' in the late nineteenth century. See the lengthy debate in the special issue of the Journal for the History of Biology, volume 14.) [340:5.c.95.233; W.301]
• Atran, Scott 1990. Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (A rigorous antidote to Foucault.) [340:7.c.95.957; W.536]
• Barber, Lynn 1980. The Heyday of Natural History. London: Cape. (A popular account of nineteenth century natural history) 382:1.b.95.2; W.356]
• Bowler, Peter 1992b. The Fontana History of the Environmental Sciences. London: Fontana. (See especially chapters 6-9. Includes an extensive bibliographical essay.) [9000.d.9267; W.571]
• Burckhardt, K.R. 1907. Geschichte der Zoologie. Leipzig: G.J. Göschen.
• Coleman, William 1971. Biology in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Wiley. (A survey for students. Fine bibliography.) [379:2.c.95.73; V.279]
• Foucault, Michael 1970. The Order of Things. New York: Random. (Well,....) [760.c.97.14; F103]
• Green, J.R. 1909. A History of Botany 1860-1900. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Continues Sach's History of Botany.) [V.8B]
• Mayr, Ernst 1982. The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Very Teutonic.) [379:2.c.95.88; V.380]
• Merrill, Lynn L. 1989. The Romance of Victorian Natural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [W.356]
• Merz, John T. 1896-1914. A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh. (Four volumes just brimming with ideas – all of them dated, of course. But a wonderful read notwithstanding. And notwithstanding the footnotes, which are often twice as long as the text! Reprinted several times.) [STORE 149:8-11]
• Morton, A.G. 1981. The History of Botanical Science. London: Academic Press. (A standard work.) [370:5.c.95.33; W.363]
• Nordenskjold, Erik 1928. The History of Biology. New York: Tudor. (A wonderful, anti-Darwinian, work which is as much a statement about the state of biology at the turn of the century as it is a history of biology.) [379:c.92.211]
• Rainger, Ronald, Keith Benson and Jane Maienschein, eds. 1988. The American Development of Biology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (On the growth of physiology and laboratory biology in America.) [379:2.c.95.159; V.446]
• von Sachs, J. 1875. History of Botany 1550-1860. Oxford: Clarendon. [STORE 141:32]

Histories – particular

• Balan, B. 1979. L'Ordre et le temps. L'anatomie comparée et l'histoire des vivants au XIXe siècle. Paris: J. Vrin. [V.371]
• Bather, F.A. 1927. 'Biological Classification Past and Future.' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 83. (A survey of the history and problems of classification in the nineteenth century.)
• Bowler, Peter 1987. Theories of Human Evolution, 1844-1944. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [460:6.c.95.109; W.443]
• Bowler, Peter 1989. The Mendelian Revolution: Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society. London: Athlone. [379:6.c.95.391: W.518]
• Browne, Janet 1983. The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography. New Haven: Yale University Press. [382:4.c.95.388; Y.119]
• Coleman, William and Frederick Holmes, eds. 1988. The Investigative Enterprise: Experimental Physiology in Nineteenth Century Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press. [303:12.c.95.31; X.886]
• Dean, J. 1979. 'Controversy over Classification: A Case Study from the History of Botany', in B. Barnes and S. Shapin, eds. 1979. Natural Order. Beverley Hills: Sage. (The first attempt at a 'strong program' modern sociology of natural history. If you're keen, get his thesis from U. of Edinburgh.) [340:7.c.95.583; E.356]
• Desmond, Adrian 1985. 'The Making of Institutional Zoology in London. 1822-1836.' History of Science 23:153-185, 223-250. (A fine use of original sources in writing institutional history.)
• Desmond, Adrian 1989. The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine and Reform in Radical London. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Pre-Darwinian radical morphology and evolution.) [379:2.c.95.155; W.526]
• Egerton, F.N. and R.P. McIntosh, eds. 1977. History of American Ecology. New York: Arno.
• Gage, A.T. and William T. Stearn 1988. A Bicentenary History of the Linnean Society of London. London: Academic Press. [370:5.b.95.8; V.483]
• Geison, Gerald L. 1978. Michael Foster and the Cambridge School of Physiology. The Scientific Enterprise in Late Victorian Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (The belated rise of physiology in Cambridge.) [303:12.c.95.35; X.208]
• Gould, Stephen J. 1977. Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. (On the important relationship of these two processes. Mainly nineteenth century. Whopper of a bibliography.) [379:5.c.95.136; W.318]
• Griffen, F.J. 1940. 'The First Entomological Societies. An Early Chapter in Entomological History in England.' Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (A) 15:49-68. (An early account.)
• Jardine, Nicholas, James Secord and Emma Sperry, eds. 1997. The Cultures of Natural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (A collection of papers given at the HPS dept., Cambridge.) [V.551 A,B]
• Knight, David 1981. Ordering the World: A History of Classifying Man. London: Burnett. (A quick, breezy survey of the topic.) [340:7.c.95.636; W.362]
• Lenoir, Timothy 1982. Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanism in Nineteenth Century German Biology. Dordrecht. (A 'Lakatosian' interpretation of the research program in teleological and transcendental biology coming out of post-Kantian Germany.) [379:2.c.95.92; V.379]
• Linnean Society of London 1950. Lectures on the Development of Taxonomy Delivered in the Rooms of the Linnean Society During the Session 1948-49. London: Linnean Society.
• Olby, Robert C. 1966 [1985]. Origins of Mendelism. New York: Schlocken. (An early, comprehensive and altogether too Whiggish outline of the ideas leading up to mendelism. See Bowler 1989.) [379:2.c.95.150; V.162]
• Outram, Dorinda 1984. George Cuvier: Vocation, Science and Authority in Post-revolutionary France. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [382:2.c.95.48; V.404]
• Price, J.H. and Alwyne C. Weeler, eds. 1981. History in the Service of Systematics. London: Society for the Bibliography of Natural History. (A series of papers, written mostly by practicing scientists, on the history of systematics.) [L382.c.312.1]
• Rehbock, Philip 1983. The Philosophical Naturalists. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (A foray into understanding the early nineteenth-century morphologists.) [V.395]
• Ritvo, Harriet 1997. The Platypus and the Mermaid: and other figments of the classifying imagination. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Wonderful book concerning the varieties and peculiarities of classification.) [V.592]
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 1985. The Great Devonian Controversy. University of Chicago Press. (Social history of nineteenth century gentleman geologists and fieldwork.) [365:13.b.95.9; Y.128]
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 1985. The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology. 2nd edition. University of Chicago Press.
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 2004. The New Science of Geology: Studies in the Earth Sciences in the Age of Revolution. Ashgate.
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 2005. Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution. University of Chicago Press.
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 2005. Lyell and Darwin, Geologists: Studies in the Earth Sciences in the Age of Reform. Ashgate.
• Secord, James 1986. Controversy in Victorian Geology. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [365:13.c.95.30; Y.131]
• Winsor, Mary P. 1976. Starfish, Jellyfish and the Order of Life. Yale: Yale University Press. (One of the few books on the history of taxonomy – a sorely neglected field.) [384:13.c.95.19; W.308]

Darwinism and evolution

For good or evil, the evolution controversy stands colossus-like astride the history of nineteenth-century life sciences. The books on Darwinism are just too numerous to mention. The following give some sort of guide to the literature.

• The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online [http://darwin-online.org.uk/] (Darwin's complete publications, plus thousands of handwritten manuscripts and the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue.)
• Alter, Stephen G. 1999. Darwinism and the Linguistic Image: Language, Race and Natural Theology in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore/London: Johns Hopkins.
• Bowler, Peter 1989. Evolution: The History of an Idea. Berkeley: University of California Press. (A detailed sweep of the history of evolutionary thought. Really, one long annotated bibliography.) [379:5.c.95.212; W.413]
• Bowler, Peter 1992. The Eclipse of Darwin: Anti-Darwinian Evolutionary Theories in the Decades around 1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. [379:5.c.95.212; W.398]
• Browne, Janet 1995. Charles Darwin, Volume 1: Voyaging. London: Cape. [V.547]
• Browne, Janet 2002. Charles Darwin, Volume 2: The Power of Place. London: Cape.
• Browne, Janet 2006. Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography. London: Atlantic Books.
• Burkhardt, F. et al 1985++ The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Massive continuing project to publish and annotate all of Darwin's extensive correspondence. Enormous value. Many letters are now available on the Darwin Correspondence Project website [http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/].) [379:2.c.95.96; V.406]
• Corsi, Pietro 1988. The Age of Lamarck: Evolutionary Theories in France, 1790-1830. Berkeley: University of California Press. [379:2.c.95,152; V.438]
• Darwin, C.R. 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. London: Collins. [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1497&viewtype=text&pageseq=1] (The best single starting source on Darwin.)
• Darwin, Francis 1887. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=text&pageseq=1]
• Darwin, Francis and A.C. Seeward 1903. More Letters of Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1548.1&viewtype=text&pageseq=1]
• Desmond, Adrian 1982. Archetypes and Ancestors: Paleontology in Victorian London, 1850-1875. London: Blond and Briggs. [368:15.c.95.9; W.385]
• Desmond, Adrian 1989. The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine and Reform in Radical London. Chicago: University of Chicago. (A splendid and thorough political history of pre-darwinian radical morphology.) [W.526]
• Desmond, Adrian and John Moore 1991. Darwin. London: Penguin. (One of the many biographies. This one stresses the social and political background of Victorian England.) [379:2.c.95.157; V.479]
• Ellegard, Alvar 1990. Darwin and the General Reader. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (A statistical, social and philosophical account of the immediate reception of Darwin's theory. Indespensible.)
• Freeman, R.B. 1978. Charles Darwin: A Companion. Folkestone: Dawson. [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=A27&viewtype=text&pageseq=1]
• Glick, Thomas, ed. 1988. The Comparative Reception of Darwinism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Papers at a conference on the reception of evolutionary theory throughout the world. Quite useful references.) [340:7.c.95.393; V.338]
• Herbert, Sandra. 2005. Charles Darwin, Geologist. New York: Cornell University Press.
• Kohn, David, ed. 1985. The Darwinian Heritage. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. (An extensive introduction to modern Darwin studies.) [379:2.c.95.135; V.421]
• Oldroyd, David 1980. Darwinian Impacts. Kensington: New South Wales University Press. [379:5.c.95.161; W.339]
• Rudwick, M.J.S. 1992. Scenes From Deep Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Ruse, Michael 1979. The Darwinian Revolution. Science Red in Tooth and Claw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (A fine, although dated, history of the ideas around the Darwinian Rev.) [379:5.c.95.153; W.329]
• Secord, James A. 2000 Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Wallace, Alfred Russel 1889. Darwinism. London: Macmillan. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14558] (The best nineteenth-century overview of evolution.)

Museums

• Allan, Mea 1967. The Hookers of Kew 1785-1911. London: Michael Joseph. (Not what you think!) [370:5.c.95.11]
• Blunt, Wilfred 1976. The Ark in the Park: The Zoo in the Nineteenth Century. London: Hamish Hamilton. [384:23.b.97.7]
• Brockway, Luciele H. 1979. Science and Colonial Expansion: The Role of the British Royal Botanical Gardens. New York: Academic Press. [370;6.c.95.13; E.361]
• Desmond, Ray 1995. Kew: The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens. London: Harvill Press. [Cory Lib. Botanic Garden GS]
• Gunther, A.E. 1980. The Founders of Science at the British Museum 1753-1900. Halesworth, Suff.: Halesworth Press. (Detailed biographies of the first four keepers of the natural history collections. See other works by Gunther on the history of the collections, etc.) [909:1.c.95.6; E.401]
• Miller, Edward 1973. That Noble Cabinet: A History of the British Museum. London: Andre Deutch. [909:1.c.95.3]
• Stearn, William T. 1981. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington. London: Heinman. (A survey from the beginnings to the 1970's.) [382:3.c.95.1; W.502]
• Sheets-Pyenson, Susan 1988. Cathedrals of Science. Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. (On colonial natural history museums.) [W.506]
• Turrill, W.B. 1959. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. London: Jenkins. [370:6.c.95.2]
• Winsor, Mary P. 1991. Reading the Shape of Nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (On Agassiz's Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard.) [V.493]
• April 1980 issue of Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History (Vol. 9, part 4) (conference on the history of museums, zoos, etc.)